Canada Gas Tax Expiration 2026: When the Fuel Tax Returns and What It Means for Gas Prices
- The federal fuel excise tax is suspended until the end of Monday 7 September 2026 and applies again from Tuesday 8 September. In law it applies to fuel on which tax becomes payable before 8 September.
- The rates coming back are 10 cents per litre on gasoline and 4 cents on diesel. Neither is new: 10 cents has been the gasoline rate since 1995, and 4 cents the diesel rate since 1987.
- The tax line goes up by more than 10 cents, because GST/HST is charged on top of the excise. That works out at about 10.5 cents where only GST applies, 11.3 cents in Ontario, and about 11.5 cents in Quebec and the four HST provinces.
- Provincial fuel taxes are untouched by this and vary enormously — from 6.2 cents in Yukon to 27 cents in the Vancouver area. Only the federal layer is changing.
Canada’s federal fuel excise tax comes back on Tuesday 8 September 2026. The last day of the holiday is Monday 7 September — Labour Day.
The tax adds 10 cents a litre to gasoline and 4 cents to diesel. Because sales tax is charged on top of it, the tax line on your receipt rises by a bit more than that.
When does the gas tax break end?
It runs until the end of 7 September 2026, and the tax applies again from 8 September.
| Date | |
|---|---|
| Suspension began | 20 April 2026 |
| Last day without the tax | 7 September 2026 (Labour Day) |
| Tax applies again | 8 September 2026 |
The legal wording is narrower than “ends in September”, and worth knowing if you are timing a fill-up: the suspension covers fuel for which the tax becomes payable after 19 April 2026 and before 8 September 2026. The tax attaches at the point it becomes payable in the supply chain, not at the moment you hold the nozzle.
How much does the tax add back?
Ten cents a litre on gasoline and four cents on diesel — the same rates that applied before April.
| Fuel | Federal excise rate |
|---|---|
| Gasoline | 10.0 cents per litre |
| Diesel | 4.0 cents per litre |
| Propane (motor vehicle) | Not subject to this tax |
| Furnace oil | Exempt |
Neither rate is new, and neither is rising. The 10-cent gasoline rate has been in place since 1995; the 4-cent diesel rate since 1987. What happened in April was a temporary suspension to zero, and what happens on 8 September is a return to the long-standing rate.
Why is the increase more than 10 cents?
Because GST or HST is charged on the full pump price, and the excise tax is part of that price. Sales tax is applied on top of a tax.
| Where you are | Sales tax on fuel | Tax component returns by about |
|---|---|---|
| GST-only provinces and territories | 5% GST | 10.5 cents/L |
| Ontario | 13% HST | 11.3 cents/L |
| Quebec | 5% GST + 9.975% QST | 11.5 cents/L |
| Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI, Newfoundland and Labrador | 15% HST | 11.5 cents/L |
The federal government is explicit about the base: GST/HST is charged on crude oil, refining and marketing costs and margins, the federal excise tax, applicable carbon levies, and provincial road taxes. The excise sits inside the amount that sales tax is calculated on, which is why removing it saved slightly more than 10 cents and restoring it costs slightly more than 10 cents.
What about provincial fuel taxes?
They are not changing. Only the federal layer moves on 8 September — and the provincial layer is much larger in some places than the federal one.
| Province or territory | Provincial gasoline tax (cents/L) |
|---|---|
| British Columbia — Vancouver area | 27.00 |
| British Columbia — Victoria area | 20.00 |
| British Columbia — rest of province | 14.50 |
| Quebec | 19.2 |
| Nova Scotia | 15.50 |
| Saskatchewan | 15.0 |
| Alberta | 13 |
| Manitoba | 12.5 |
| New Brunswick | 10.87 |
| Northwest Territories | 10.7 |
| Ontario | 9.0 |
| Prince Edward Island | 8.47 |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | 7.50 |
| Nunavut | 6.4 |
| Yukon | 6.2 |
The British Columbia figures include regional transit levies, which is why the province appears three times at three different rates.
A driver in the Vancouver area pays more than four times the provincial fuel tax of a driver in Yukon, and none of that is affected by what happens on 8 September. There are also provincial clean-fuel adjusters on top in several provinces.
Will pump prices go up by that much on 8 September?
The tax component will. The price on the sign is a different question, and this page does not answer it.
Here is the honest split:
- What is certain: the federal excise line returns at 10 cents on gasoline and 4 cents on diesel, and sales tax applies on top, so the tax portion of a litre rises by roughly 10.5 to 11.5 cents depending on where you are.
- What is not: the wholesale price of fuel moves daily for reasons that have nothing to do with this tax. A pump price is the wholesale cost plus margins plus every tax layer, and two of those three move on their own.
So “the tax adds about 11 cents” is a fact, and “gas will cost about 11 cents more on 8 September” is not. They are only the same sentence if nothing else changes, and something else always changes.
What this article does not do
- It does not forecast fuel prices — not ours, and not anyone else’s outlook or target.
- It does not tell you whether to fill up before 8 September. The arithmetic is above; the decision is yours and depends on prices you can see and we cannot.
- It does not say whether the suspension gets extended. No extension has been announced. If one is, this page will be updated rather than guessed at.
If the arithmetic above matters to your budget, the lever you actually control is where you fill up — we keep a guide to finding cheap gas near you and stacking cash back . For how fuel costs get used in politics rather than budgets, see our piece on gas prices and the 2028 US race .
What to take from it
- 8 September is the date. 7 September is the last day without the tax.
- 10 cents gasoline, 4 cents diesel — and both rates are decades old, not new.
- The tax line moves by 10.5–11.5 cents, not exactly 10, because sales tax rides on top.
- Your province matters more than the federal tax does. From 6.2 cents in Yukon to 27 in Metro Vancouver, and none of it changes in September.
- Nobody can tell you the pump price on 8 September, including us.
Sources
| Source | What it supports here |
|---|---|
| Natural Resources Canada: Fuel Consumption Levies in Canada | Every federal and provincial rate in this article, the GST/HST percentages and what they are charged on, the 1995 and 1987 dates for the current excise rates, and the note that the suspension runs to and including 7 September 2026 |
| Prime Minister of Canada: Carney suspends the federal fuel excise tax on gasoline and diesel | The 14 April announcement, the 20 April start, the 7 September end, and the 10-cent and 4-cent rates |
| EY: Canada temporarily suspends federal excise tax on fuel | The legal wording that the measure applies to fuel for which tax becomes payable after 19 April 2026 and before 8 September 2026, and the list of fuels covered |
Checked 18 August 2026. This article contains no price forecast, and quotes no third-party price target. No affiliate links, and no payment was received for any link on this page.
How we verified this
We do not forecast pump prices, and this article contains none. Fuel is a traded commodity, and this site does not publish predictions of future prices or trends for anything with a market price — our own or anyone else’s. What this page does is arithmetic on published tax rates, which is a different thing: the excise rate is a legal figure, not a market view. Whether the price on the sign goes up by that amount on 8 September depends on the wholesale market at the time, and nothing here claims to know that.
The dates are taken from the legal wording rather than a summary. The suspension applies to fuel for which the tax becomes payable after 19 April 2026 and before 8 September 2026. That is why this page says the last day of relief is 7 September and the tax applies again on 8 September, rather than describing it as ending “in September”.
The rate table is the federal government’s own. Natural Resources Canada publishes a consolidated table of federal and provincial consumption taxes on petroleum products, last modified 28 April 2026, and every provincial figure here comes from it, as do the GST/HST percentages and the note that the excise suspension runs to and including 7 September.
One primary source could not be reached from here and is named rather than linked. The Department of Finance news release announcing the suspension sits on canada.ca, and that host returned no response at all on our connection — not a block page, no bytes. The Prime Minister’s Office release carrying the same dates and rates was reachable and is used instead.
The GST/HST figures are computed, not quoted. Applying 5% GST to a 10-cent excise gives 10.5 cents; Ontario’s 13% HST gives 11.3 cents; the 15% HST provinces give 11.5 cents. Quebec is shown at about the same level as the 15% provinces because GST and the 9.975% QST together come to just under 15%. These are rounded to one decimal place and are the tax component only.
The historical rates are included because they change how the story reads. The 10-cent gasoline rate has applied since 1995 and the 4-cent diesel rate since 1987, per the same federal source. This is a return to a long-standing rate, not the introduction of a new charge.
Nothing here says whether the suspension will be extended. No extension has been announced as of 18 August 2026, and this page does not speculate about one.